We think we’d like it if someone gave us a blank check and unlimited time to accomplish a project, but author Seth Godin believes that constraints are the reason a project exists and we should embrace them (see dot #4193).
Godin believes it’s constraint confusion that causes problems, not the limitations themselves. If you know what the parameters are, you can likely adjust the work to meet them. He gives the example of Saturday Night Live — which airs Saturday night at 11:30 pm — “not because it’s perfect, but because it’s 11:30. No one is allowed to say the show would be better if we could put it on an hour later.”
While it may be tempting to work in an environment without boundaries, you could work on incremental improvements forever and it would actually be harder to know when the work was finished. The clarity of project constraints helps to alleviate stress and delays — and allows people to make the best decisions about where to allocate resources and effort.
The next time you’re starting a project, start with an agreement on the boundaries of time, money, and output specifications. Taking time to build that fence will keep you from later disagreements about what success looks like.
